That’s the report from Ken Rosenthal, who tweets that A-Rod was re-injured before the playoffs and that he was “on pain medication throughout the post-season. Pain so severe after one of DS games, he had to be taken to emergency room and spent night there.”

Hurm.

On the one hand, I’m tempted to say that this is certainly sobering for the people who wanted to trash the hell out of Rodriguez during the playoffs.

On the other hand, how in the world could no one have reported that A-Rod spent a night in an ER during the playoffs before now? That kind of thing has to get out, doesn’t it? Heck, given how much crap people were piling on Rodriguez, you’d think the Yankees would have leaked or reported this themselves in an effort to protect their player from being attacked the way he was being attacked back in October.

Whatver the case, my spidey sense tells me that, yes, A-Rod was in a lot more pain during the playoffs than was generally reported, but that perhaps someone — maybe someone close to A-Rod — is gilding the lily a bit here.

As always, of course, if A-Rod can come back and play, this will be forgotten. If not, he’ll be considered a bum or a slacker or whatever it is people like to consider A-Rod. He’ll never get credit for trying to play through pain.

The Cardinals have always emphasized building from within. In the 2016-17 offseason, however, they may end up being one of the bigger free agent buyers. At least according to some informed speculation.

The Cardinals are already losing their first round pick due to the Fowler signing, so any other top free agent won’t cost them more than the money he’s owed. And as far as money goes, the Cardinals have a great deal of it, despite being a small market team. They have a billion dollar TV deal coming online and Matt Holliday and Jaime Garcia are off the payroll now. Spending big on a free agent or three would not cripple them or anything.

Encarnacion or Trumbo would be first baseman, which wold fly in the face of the Cards’ move of Matt Carpenter to first base (and, at least as far as Encarnacion goes, would fly in the face of good defense). Getting either of them would push Carpenter back to second, displacing Kolten Wong, or over to third, displacing Jhonny Peralta. If you’re going to do that, I’d say that Turner would make more sense, but what do I know?

Either way, the Cardinals may be entering a pretty interesting phase of their offseason now. And an unfamiliar one as, quite possibly, the top free agent buyer on the market.

There is literally nothing you could tell me that the incoming administration is considering which would shock me anymore. As such, I saw this story when I woke up this morning, blinked once, took a sip of coffee, closed the browser window and just went on with my morning, as desensitized as a wisdom tooth about to be yanked.

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports that Former Red Sox, Mets and Rangers manager Bobby Valentine is on a short-list of candidates for the job of United States Ambassador to Japan:

The 66-year-old, who currently serves as Sacred Heart University’s athletics director, has engaged in preliminary discussions with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team regarding the position.

Valentine managed the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League for six seasons, leading the team to a championship in 2005. He also knows the current prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, as both went to USC. Assuming championship teams meet the country’s leader in Japan like they do in the United States, Valentine has at least twice the amount of experience with top political leaders than does, say, Ned Yost, so that’s something.

The former manager, more importantly, is friends with Donald Trump’s brother, with the two of them going way back. Which, given how this transition is going, seems like a far more important set of qualifications than anything else on this list.